Temple View

With most of the planned drainage work complete attention turned to finishing off the sales office. Enquiries have been steadily growing in number and the completed sales office will give a good base to entertain those prospective customers and to be able to ensure that they have all the information concerning Temple View that they need.

There is now a new brochure available with up to date information on availability, ownership and payment by installments. Just complete the form in the sidebar and we will send you an online version and hard copy by post if required.

After our first prolonged dry spell for any noticeable length of time we have been able to return to drainage work. Excavation work has been completed, piping laid and most of the groundwork made good again.

Work has commenced on the sales office too and we are hoping to have the shell at least finished on that by the end of this week. Enquiries have been steadily growing in number and with one of our directors on site now full time through to completion the office will be well-used.

The Nation recently reported that land prices in the resort city of Hua Hin have increased by 25 to 50 per cent so far this year following huge investment by local and foreign land developers. Price escalation had particularly affected land plots close to Hua Hin’s long beach, where asking prices were currently up to Bt50 million ($US1.42 Million) per rai - a 50-per-cent increase over those of two years ago. (There are 1600 square metres in one rai.)

Land plots on the high hinterland behind the city have also risen in price, from between Bt800,000 and Bt1 million per rai to between Bt3 million and Bt5 million per rai. The increases have followed strong demand for residential properties in Hua Hin, particularly from foreigners with high purchasing power who want a second home for holidays or an attractive investment option that will produce good rental income as well as a steady capital appreciation. Many buyers come from Europe and the Middle East.

“Most foreigners who buy residences in Hua Hin will buy a house to be a second home for vacations or as an investment, with returns from rental fees. As a result, a number of property developers in Hua Hin now offer property management and guarantee returns on investment of between 6 and 8 per cent per year. This is why the property business in Hua Hin has strong growth, and the growth will continue in to next year and beyond!” Local property experts were quoted as saying.

All this can only bode well for buyers and prospective buyers. At Temple View in response to strong buyer interest we have just launched a new sales brochure and have commenced construction work on the on-site sales office. In order to receive a free copy of the brochure and information pack by email or post just complete the registration form in the side bar.

As the floor slab progresses we can see the 3rd floor nearing completion. Now that we have the Christmas and New Year holiday breaks out of the way our goal is to push on and have the main structure completed by the end of this month. We have extra construction teams arriving this week from Iysan so that we can double-team right through until completion.

The views from the third floor are looking really great. Whether across to Hua Hin bay or back into the tropical countryside, the natural beauty and tranquility of the location are impressive.

With columns on the third floor now completed since the last post we can move on to pouring the floor slab. A large mobile crane is used to hoist the concrete mix buckets up to the upper floors.

With the wooden form work in place to provide a frame for the concrete the construction team guide the bucket to the required position and let the mix pour into place.

The floor space is broken up into a grid work system by the floor beams. The floor slab then progresses by filling each of the grids in. For added strength the floor slab is formed from a collection of smaller slabs. If you look at the photos showing the floor above from below you can see the smaller slabs laid together.

Progress continues unabated! Second floor slab is completed and now we move on to the third floor.

With the completed slab it has made it easier to judge the views available from the second floor apartments. Up above the surrounding buildings and immediate tree line the vista across to Kao Takhiab and Monkey Mountain is simply great! Back across inland, views to the local hills and countryside are also equally impressive.

On the upper floor you can already get a taste of the magnificent views that will be available from the higher floors and roof gardens.

In some of the photos you can see the wooden form work for the beams encasing the steel reinforcement cages ready for the concrete to be poured into. Later shots show you the finished beams which will then be left to cure as the team move on to complete the form work for the columns up to the next floor.

Just to keep you up to date with the weather, we have had some improvements but again last week lost a couple of days to a terrific tropical storm with torrential rainfall. It is moving into what is known here as the cold season, but trust me it is nothing like the cold season (winter) that most of you are heading into back in Europe and North America! Temperatures drop into the low twenties (centigrade that is!) and some early mornings you do feel a little chill before the sun comes out to warm you through properly. The Thais all go around muttering “Now, now” (Thai for cold) but we all go round looking at them thinking they must be mad, it is absolutely beautiful!

Sorry for unplanned break in posts but I have just spent a short spell in hospital. The project has continued at a good pace in my absence with both my wife and her brother supervising the team which is now over 50 strong.

Structural work has moved onto the second floor with all the beams in place and steel reinforcement for columns to the third floor nearing completion. Preformed concrete slabs with steel reinforcement will form the floors as we go up. The slabs are dropped in to place by crane and give us both a solid base and speedy work practice.

Yes I know I have been going on about the unusually heavy rainfall but last week the Typhoon passing through China and Vietnam managed to be felt as far south as us here in Hua Hin. We only received heavy rain and a couple of windy days but it did serve to remind me how lucky we are.

Situated at the top of the Bay of Thailand we are exceptionally well protected from the worse effects of tropical storms and sufficiently far enough away from fault lines and earthquake zones to have slept obliviously through every night for the last seven years! And long may that continue!

Looking through a forest of steel and wooden form work, the building shape and room definition can now for the first time be made out.

The wooden form work contains the concrete and steel reinforcement that we saw being put up last week. Once the concrete has set the form work will be removed and reused on the next floor columns.

After the concrete is placed, a minimum period of six days is required to ensure that the concrete cures satisfactorily. Adequate curing is vital to quality concrete and has a strong influence on the durability, strength, watertightness, abrasion resistance & volume stability.

Good curing means evaporation should be prevented or reduced and to achieve this we need to continuously dampen the concrete surface. That’s why you should always see newly poured concrete in Thailand being continuously sprayed for the first couple of days at least!